[0:02] Nirav Chheda: wheelchair trips. I get a no- lift NEMT device and now I can do stretcher trips and I can do them with just one person instead of two people.
[0:13] Nirav Chheda: Correct. Yeah. Amazing. [music] an interesting guest with us today.
[0:33] Nirav Chheda: I've got Travis Draney, the creator of No Lift NEMT, which is an innovative new way to transfer patients from bedside to wheelchair and back and forth.
[0:45] Nirav Chheda: Travis is going to tell us all about it.
[0:47] Nirav Chheda: How you doing, Travis? Good. How have you been?
[0:50] Nirav Chheda: Rocking and rolling. Good to see you again since NEMTAC and yeah, a couple phone calls we've had.
[0:56] Travis Draney: Yeah. Yeah. I am excited to share No Lift NEMT with the audience.
[1:02] Nirav Chheda: Um you have this great twominute video that demonstrates [clears throat] what No Lift NEMT is and how it works.
[1:10] Nirav Chheda: It's gotten a lot of hits on YouTube.
[1:12] Nirav Chheda: I'm going to be sharing that link in the description of this video.
[1:16] Nirav Chheda: But Travis, why don't you go ahead and just tell us [clears throat] what is No-Lift NEMT?
[1:21] Travis Draney: So, no lift NEMT is an it's an innovative process that makes transportations easier for transport provid providers.
[1:29] Travis Draney: It also makes it safer. Um, so it is it is an implementation of a system to allow you to accommodate wheelchair or gurney scheduled patients into a device that will um that that it's more dignifying than a standard
[1:47] Travis Draney: wheelchair or gurney. And it can be used with one person um other than a lateral transfer.
[1:53] Travis Draney: Lateral transfers are always required by two people.
[1:56] Travis Draney: Um but it can be used in any wheelchair accessible vehicle.
[2:00] Travis Draney: So it's you're taking out the complication of a standard wheelchair and how to secure and do a patient assess on assessment on these patients that are in standard wheelchairs, but it also takes away the intimidation of operating a
[2:15] Travis Draney: gurney. Makes it a lot easier.
[2:18] Nirav Chheda: So what you're saying is there are certain types of transfers that normally would be done with a gurney but if you use No-Lift NEMT you don't actually need the gurney.
[2:30] Travis Draney: Most of these patients that are bedbound max assist they lack the trunk control to hold themselves up in a standard wheelchair.
[2:37] Travis Draney: So, some of the complications with providers right now is uh because of the cost difference between a wheelchair and a gurney, a lot of times they're being downgraded to a wheelchair.
[2:50] Travis Draney: Um, and so transport providers have to show up and you have to train your drivers to kind of do a patient assessment to say, can we safely transport this patient in a standard wheelchair?
[2:59] Travis Draney: And you've got some red flags you can look for.
[3:02] Travis Draney: Usually, it's like a gel cushion, the patient's slouching.
[3:05] Travis Draney: um if you've got um like a hoyer sling underneath the patient, all those could be red flags that this is a max assist bed bound patient, wheelchair bound patient, or they don't have that trunk control.
[3:17] Travis Draney: So your next option is to go to a gurney.
[3:21] Travis Draney: Um and so and a lot sometimes you'll show up to do a gurney transport.
[3:26] Travis Draney: These patients can stand up, they can sit on a gurney.
[3:29] Travis Draney: Most of them can sit up.
[3:30] Travis Draney: They don't have to lay flat like gurneys are originally designed for EMS, military, really emergency or distracting these patients.
[3:39] Travis Draney: But we have adopted gurneys because standard wheelchairs aren't cutting it um for these types of patients um and these patients are falling out of wheelchairs.
[3:50] Travis Draney: Uh and so that liability turns to the transport provider.
[3:54] Travis Draney: So what no lift has done is we can perform a lateral transfer by putting a patient into a reclining and positioning wheelchair that happens to be crash tested which we could talk about why that's important and then you
[4:09] Travis Draney: can sit them up and transport them.
[4:12] Travis Draney: Um, what one of the interesting things with health care, one of the riskiest transfers you can do in health care is a stand and pivot transfer, especially for these fall risk bedbound max assist patients because they're falling or they're
[4:28] Travis Draney: they're they don't have the strength to hold themselves up and if they fall down uh that could hurt themselves and it could hurt the transport provider or the health care provider.
[4:38] Travis Draney: So to be able to perform a lateral transfer once they're in the bed and then sit them up into a wheelchair, it makes the process a lot easier.
[4:48] Travis Draney: It reduces some of that risk that's involved.
[4:51] Nirav Chheda: And Travis, you highlight this really well in this twominute video that shows how it works.
[4:58] Nirav Chheda: I mean, just to give like a little tidbit of it, you're taking what essentially is a wheelchair.
[5:04] Nirav Chheda: You're bringing it next to the patient's bed in the hospital and you lie that wheelchair flat and then you're essentially sliding that patient who's lying down, sliding them from the bed onto that flat sort of and then you
[5:18] Nirav Chheda: bring that stretcher up and it's like they're in the wheelchair.
[5:22] Nirav Chheda: You don't have to lift them to get them onto the wheelchair.
[5:25] Nirav Chheda: Hence, no lift and Yeah. It it seems like such a basic, you know, no-brainer concept.
[5:35] Nirav Chheda: Um, this is a relatively new sort of innovation that you've come up with, right?
[5:39] Nirav Chheda: Can you tell us the story behind it?
[5:41] Travis Draney: Yeah, so I started in 2009 as a transport provider.
[5:45] Travis Draney: And again, going back, we had um Ford Econolines.
[5:49] Travis Draney: We had where they were set up to where you could do a side entry lift wheelchair in the front and then out the back you could do a gurney.
[5:57] Travis Draney: Well, some of the problems that we had with those is that you know, we had to send two people because we never knew if we had a wheelchair or we had a gurney.
[6:07] Travis Draney: Um and these patients were falling out of these wheelchair.
[6:10] Travis Draney: They would unbuckle themselves. Drivers would cut corners and load patients in wheelchairs facing sideways.
[6:17] Travis Draney: Um or or there was miscommunication between the employees uh operating the gurney.
[6:25] Travis Draney: Um, we've also had patients that would shift their weight during loading, unload unloading, which makes it very difficult to stabilize that gurney when you're loading and unloading.
[6:34] Travis Draney: So, we had these injuries and accidents and me as the operations manager, safety manager, I was just like, how can we do this better?
[6:44] Travis Draney: Um, and so I went on a hunt and went searching for a a better way.
[6:49] Travis Draney: And I came across WC19. Um, and what that meant now WC19, it's a crash testing standard.
[6:57] Travis Draney: So, just like your vehicle seats that you drive in or an infant car seat, those have to go through a crash test.
[7:04] Travis Draney: And it's the law. Infant car seats are the law and it's the law for us to wear a seat belt.
[7:09] Travis Draney: But WC19, what that means is that you have a crash tested wheelchair that's designed to be secured in a vehicle.
[7:18] Travis Draney: Um, and so I found this and tried to implement this this chair, but uh had a couple complications when we when you were talking about that lateral transfer and watching that video.
[7:30] Travis Draney: One of the things that uh is difficult is performing that lateral transfer, especially for heavier patients.
[7:38] Travis Draney: um if the patients happen to be a little wet or sticky um or [clears throat] if there's uh bed rails that don't remove or the bed doesn't go up and down that can make the the lateral transfer complicated.
[7:51] Travis Draney: So with no lift we also implemented a roll board that reduces the patients transfer it by 50%.
[7:58] Travis Draney: It bridges any gap in between the uh and the um and the bed and uh it also reduces shear and friction.
[8:08] Travis Draney: Healthcare workers love to hear that phrase shear and friction when it reduces that because um that's a problem in healthcare also especially for these patients that are laying on beds for long periods of times.
[8:19] Travis Draney: they have hot spots, they have uh wounds, um you know, they have different things that can cause complications or problems in the transfer.
[8:28] Travis Draney: So, in my experience trying to figure out how to implement wheelchairs and gurneys and how to train the employees, um I came up, you know, if you look at OSHA, there's there's three ways to improve um a risk
[8:44] Travis Draney: or a hazard. Number one is administrative which administrative will be training policies, procedures, protocols.
[8:52] Travis Draney: Um that's the first step. Can we train the employee and set up systems on how to use this equipment?
[9:00] Travis Draney: Your second one goes to engineering.
[9:02] Travis Draney: So if you can engineer a safer solution or safer opportunity or safer safer way to perform a task um then you can do that.
[9:13] Travis Draney: And the last one is PPE, personal protective equipment.
[9:16] Travis Draney: You're just protecting the employee. So with no lift, we also um come up with a solution that involves training and equipment to make it easier to perform that task for employees.
[9:29] Nirav Chheda: Awesome. And correct me if I'm wrong here, but like the biggest liability in doing, you know, a trip for one of these kinds of patients is literally moving the patient from the bed onto the wheelchair or whatever it
[9:45] Nirav Chheda: is because, you know, that's where the greatest risk is of the patient falling over or or whatnot.
[9:52] Nirav Chheda: Is that like the critical point that you have to protect most?
[9:57] Travis Draney: That is one of them. So with transport providers and there's indications of this because our insurance just keeps climbing higher and higher.
[10:05] Travis Draney: Uh there there's a few reasons why that's happening.
[10:08] Travis Draney: Um vehicles are getting more expensive.
[10:11] Travis Draney: They're more difficult to repair. Um but another part of that is there's an inherent risk when you put a patient into a vehicle.
[10:20] Travis Draney: Um especially when it's patients that um that are aging.
[10:26] Travis Draney: they're they're having a difficult time maneuvering, walking.
[10:30] Travis Draney: So, there's risk with them ambulating.
[10:34] Travis Draney: Um, and then there's risk with them being in the back of the vehicle, especially in a standard wheelchair.
[10:40] Travis Draney: So, the transfer, going back to healthcare providers, the riskiest transfer they can do is a stand and pivot transfer.
[10:47] Travis Draney: Um, the lateral transfer can also be a risk.
[10:51] Travis Draney: it can be a risk to the transport providers that are performing that transfer.
[10:55] Travis Draney: Uh especially for heavier patients. These patients aren't getting lighter.
[10:59] Travis Draney: Some of the hospice patients can be light, but a lot of the patients that we're called to transport are heavy patients.
[11:05] Travis Draney: Um so yes, when you have a heavy patient in a bed trying to get them from one piece of equipment to the other and they're bedbound or max assist, there's quite a few injuries that can occur there.
[11:16] Travis Draney: Um and so this mitigates that risk.
[11:26] Nirav Chheda: been out there in the market?
[11:29] Travis Draney: So, um, we started launching, um, it this was this was so much fun to get this out there.
[11:36] Travis Draney: Um when I saw the opportunity with my own operations um and I and I implemented this system in my own operations, I saw the benefits for the patient, for the for the transport provider and for the healthcare providers.
[11:52] Travis Draney: And then I saw the clinicians and the case managers seeing the value of what this could do um to accomplish the task that they have to get patients to appointments or get them to discharge.
[12:03] Travis Draney: Um, and so when I implemented my first operations, um, I wanted to really test it out because it was kind of just, um, we still had standard wheelchairs and that's difficult to remove because of complications that standard wheelchairs
[12:21] Travis Draney: have when you show up and a patient's already in a standard wheelchair um, and the complications with gurney.
[12:26] Travis Draney: So, we still did all three levels of service, no lift, wheelchairs, and gurneys.
[12:30] Travis Draney: Um, but I really wanted to test this out and remove barriers.
[12:35] Travis Draney: So, I started my own transport company uh with the goal to 100% implement this chair.
[12:44] Travis Draney: Um, I won't I can't say we've done 100% to implement it, but we're about 90%.
[12:50] Nirav Chheda: Um, 90%'s a lot of percent.
[12:52] Travis Draney: Yeah. Yeah. And so so once I saw that and I tested it with my own company um and I wanted to really prove this concept I started to launch and to sell these.
[13:02] Travis Draney: So we started launching these and selling these in 2017 2018 um and then you know COVID hit in 2019 and so it was a little slowgoing at first but it's a it's a new concept that um it's a
[13:19] Travis Draney: lot of fun as for a transport provider to take this to their facilities and show this chair.
[13:25] Travis Draney: Um we've got a lot of success stories on building relationships with a piece of equipment that's like a showand tell.
[13:31] Travis Draney: it. Sometimes it's difficult to remove barriers when you show up and knock on someone's door trying to get an agreement or to offer a a service that when they have other service providers.
[13:42] Travis Draney: This removes some of those barriers to take this piece of equipment in there in the system and show them what we can do um builds relationships and it it's really an experience uh to see it.
[13:54] Travis Draney: And you can kind of see a little bit of that in the video.
[13:57] Travis Draney: Um, one of my favorite parts is when I get ready to transfer a patient, I believe that a nurse should be a nurse CNA should be present during a transfer.
[14:10] Travis Draney: And so what we try to do is we get those nurses or CNAs involved in that transfer.
[14:17] Travis Draney: And when they see how easy that board works and how easy that chair uh sets up and we can perform that lateral transfer, we get a lot of aha um from the nurses like, "Wow, this is great.
[14:31] Travis Draney: This is awesome. We need one of these." Um it's just it just makes it easier.
[14:37] Nirav Chheda: So, not only does it help you actually transfer the patient more safely, more quickly, but it actually helps you get more business with the facilities as like a marketing tool.
[14:49] Nirav Chheda: You mind if I just go ahead and share a screen and show the device on your website really quick?
[14:53] Nirav Chheda: Yeah, please. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is essentially the device, right?
[15:00] Nirav Chheda: And you've got a little explainer and pictures of the process uh underneath.
[15:05] Nirav Chheda: I mean, this is like one critical part of the process where, you know, the patient's lying here on the bed and you essentially slide them over to this thing, this device as it's flat, and then you bring up
[15:16] Nirav Chheda: the back, which basically turns it into a wheelchair.
[15:20] Nirav Chheda: That's like the critical piece of it.
[15:24] Nirav Chheda: Um, and again, this video, it just explains it so well.
[15:29] Nirav Chheda: Um, I think this is like, you know, sort of a no-brainer once people sort of learn like, wow, I can do these trips that used to be stretcher, but now I can just do them in a device that
[15:43] Nirav Chheda: essentially is, you know, a hybrid that turns between a wheelchair and stretcher and I don't have to lift the patients.
[15:50] Nirav Chheda: Um, Travis, can you share like, you know, for the viewers watching this who are like, "Hey, I'm interested in this, you know, where do I learn about the pricing?
[16:00] Nirav Chheda: How do I get one of these things?" Um, what do they need to know?
[16:04] Travis Draney: Well, they need once you visit the website, you have an opportunity to book uh a phone call or a meeting with me.
[16:11] Travis Draney: And so what I like to do is with my experience, my background, one, I want to make sure you have the training that you need to implement something like this.
[16:20] Travis Draney: But even before that, I want to understand your operations.
[16:23] Travis Draney: There are so many different layers to non-emergency medical transport.
[16:26] Travis Draney: There may be companies that just do ambulatory transport, some just do wheelchairs, some do gurney.
[16:32] Travis Draney: Um, and so I really want to understand your operations now or where you want to take your operations.
[16:40] Travis Draney: Um, and then from there, that's where I can talk about, you know, what's going to be the best solution for you, how to implement it, how to grow it, what type of vehicles to have, um, what type of
[16:52] Travis Draney: [clears throat] training to get, what type of employees to hire, um, they're they're, you know, with NEMT, like I said, there's all these different layers.
[17:01] Travis Draney: We really need to peel that back to understand where you're at.
[17:05] Nirav Chheda: Um, and broadly like you know if you're an NEMT business that does wheelchair or stretcher like No-Lift NEMT, you know can be hugely beneficial to Yeah.
[17:19] Travis Draney: Yeah. If you're one of the biggest values with this system is if you're a wheelchair provider already, it's a turnkey solution.
[17:28] Travis Draney: So if you're not offering Gurnie transports and you want to, you've already you already have the vehicle set up.
[17:35] Travis Draney: So I mean most providers if they want to do Gurnie, they have to get a designated Gurnie vehicle um and they have to get the Gurnie and then get the training to implement that Gurnie.
[17:46] Travis Draney: So with this system, you can use it in any wheelchair accessible vehicle.
[17:51] Travis Draney: Now some wheelchairs work better than others.
[17:54] Travis Draney: Um, so that's what I help work through these transport providers of establishing what vehicles they have, what service they want to operate, how easy this is going to be to implement.
[18:05] Travis Draney: But but this this is one of the most cost effective ways to get into that higher level of service like Gurnie.
[18:12] Nirav Chheda: So tell me this, let's say I'm an NEMT business.
[18:16] Nirav Chheda: I do wheelchair trips. I get a no- lift NEMT device and now I can do stretcher trips and I can do them with just one person instead of two people.
[18:27] Travis Draney: Correct. Yeah. A lot less intimidating.
[18:31] Travis Draney: Um and if you we found this experience where we've transported patients before and we took a survey through some of the patients that have been transported on a gurney before and they've been transported with our system and uh
[18:47] Travis Draney: because it's so much more dignifying.
[18:50] Travis Draney: They would rather be transported with this system than on a traditional gurney or even a power gurney.
[18:56] Travis Draney: Um so there's there's some value there.
[19:00] Travis Draney: Um, it's just we need to walk them through and that's what I do.
[19:05] Travis Draney: I consult transport companies. I'm not just selling them some equipment and a solution.
[19:10] Travis Draney: I want to help them successfully implement that into their operations.
[19:15] Travis Draney: Um, and that's what we've been able to do so far and want to continue to do.
[19:19] Nirav Chheda: Can you share some stories of that?
[19:20] Nirav Chheda: Uh, stories of any businesses that have adopted this and you know how things have changed for them?
[19:27] Travis Draney: Yeah, I had a provider that called me um he was just doing ambulatory trips and he wanted to get into wheelchair trips um and he was looking for a safer wheelchair because he saw how unsafe standard wheelchairs were
[19:40] Travis Draney: kind of the problems that were involved um and you know got him the chair um and worked with him, consulted with him.
[19:47] Travis Draney: He's got, you know, he had had zero wheelchair vehicles and that was probably in 2018 and now I believe he has six vehicles and he he actually has gurneys as well, but he has uh our system.
[20:04] Travis Draney: Um, so there are providers that will still opt to use a gurney.
[20:10] Travis Draney: Um like my my sales pitch is that we can do 95% of Gurnie scheduled trips with this system.
[20:19] Travis Draney: There's gurneys are still very much needed.
[20:22] Travis Draney: Um but anyways, this provider six vehicles operating.
[20:26] Travis Draney: He's doing a great job. And and we have we have several other providers throughout the United States.
[20:31] Travis Draney: We've sold over 250 chairs throughout the United States um since co Yeah.
[20:39] Travis Draney: Is it largely like word of mouth like wow this works great for me and it just spreads a lot of it's the video uh putting that video out there and seeing that video um I've I've reached out to
[20:50] Travis Draney: many providers um through LinkedIn and Facebook and just said hey take a look at this would this would this help you in your operations um it it got pretty big with how how limited I was to help so
[21:05] Travis Draney: many providers so I actually started the Facebook group um NEMT non-emergency medical transport and it's now one of the largest Facebook groups.
[21:14] Travis Draney: So uh it's awesome to see uh different people like yourself providers uh exhibitors that are on there um helping coaching new transport providers transport providers that have been around a long time.
[21:29] Travis Draney: Uh that's one of the avenues that, you know, I'm just limited to helping everybody I can, but that group's been a lot of fun to build and put together and see the Yeah.
[21:40] Nirav Chheda: I look at that group every week.
[21:42] Nirav Chheda: I think it's like one of the biggest groups of any MT providers that share info.
[21:46] Travis Draney: That's awesome. Yep. And then and then we haven't even talked about NEMTAC.
[21:52] Travis Draney: Um that's where we met up.
[21:55] Travis Draney: But NEMTAC is uh since NEMTAC started I've been on the advisory board with NEMTAC working with them trying to improve standards for NEMT.
[22:04] Travis Draney: I back in the day I always referred to NEMT as the wild west.
[22:08] Travis Draney: It's like there's anything goes and you see so many different things and there's um and I think that also affects us insurance-wise uh when someone's putting a gurney in the back of a minivan um that's not even wheelchair
[22:25] Travis Draney: accessible um or we see some crazy stuff out there.
[22:30] Travis Draney: So that that's that's the value of NEMTAC is we're trying to create standards.
[22:37] Travis Draney: We're trying to um create training that will improve the industry because it needs some help, but it's growing.
[22:46] Travis Draney: It's growing very fast, too. Yeah.
[22:50] Nirav Chheda: Well, hopefully we can get people onto the right processes um you know, as it grows so we can grow the right way.
[22:59] Nirav Chheda: And you know, I've seen your devices at the NEMTAC conferences.
[23:03] Nirav Chheda: Um, you know, I I've been hearing about No Lift NEMT almost since we started Bambi two years ago.
[23:09] Nirav Chheda: And um, it's it's really inspiring to see, you know, the kind of innovation in this space that um is really a game changer.
[23:20] Nirav Chheda: I mean, can you share with us a bit about like actually constructing this device?
[23:26] Travis Draney: Well, I I didn't come up with this.
[23:30] Travis Draney: The chair itself, the chair was there.
[23:32] Travis Draney: It's pretty much set up and designed for long-term patient care.
[23:37] Travis Draney: Um, so it's typically a custom built chair for an individual that needs long-term care.
[23:44] Travis Draney: Most most wheelchairs are. Um, and so when I when I got a hold of this chair, I wanted to make it for multi-person use.
[23:53] Travis Draney: So I reached out to the manufacturer and uh and secured an agreement to implement this chair for transport providers and that's and I used my experience to build a uh a training program consulting program around how to implement
[24:09] Travis Draney: this chair and and doing this in my own operations was was crucial to make sure that if someone calls and says hey we've got this obstacle how do we overcome it?
[24:20] Travis Draney: Um, I may not have all the answers, but I I've got a lot of experience that I can walk them through how to overcome some of those obstacles.
[24:28] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Awesome. Um, Travis, this has been inspiring as usual.
[24:36] Nirav Chheda: Um, I really hope that more people learn about No Lift NEMT because I mean it just makes sense in every which way, you know, financially and safety wise.
[24:50] Nirav Chheda: Um any sort of final thoughts you want to leave our viewers with?
[24:54] Travis Draney: [clears throat] No, I appreciate your time today and you know technology what you're doing on the technology side is amazing.
[25:01] Travis Draney: Um it's very much needed. So it's cool to see you know technology how that's evolving engineering how it's evolving training.
[25:11] Travis Draney: Um, you know, people that get into the N&T space, uh, there is a passion that's shared here.
[25:19] Travis Draney: Um, it's hard to get out of this industry once you've gotten into it, especially when you're dealing with the patient care bedside part of this.
[25:28] Travis Draney: Um, I just hope that the industry continues to go in the right direction.
[25:33] Travis Draney: Um, and I believe that, you know, my vision is we've got to replace some of these standard wheelchairs and uh and gurneys aren't always the solution to transporting these patients.
[25:47] Travis Draney: Um, WC19 uh really has changed that.
[25:52] Travis Draney: There's other features with the chair that I'd love to talk about.
[25:55] Travis Draney: One of them is tilt in space.
[25:57] Travis Draney: It's a function that allows the chair to tilt back um like most standard wheelchairs like this, but this chair will allow you to tilt it back, allowing gravity to pull the patients back into the chair.
[26:09] Travis Draney: I can send you some pictures on that.
[26:11] Travis Draney: Um but no, this uh this has been a very fulfilling part of my life being [clears throat] able to care for those who can't necessarily care for the themselves.
[26:23] Travis Draney: like this is customer service at its highest.
[26:27] Travis Draney: Um, you know, you go to a restaurant, yeah, you can get customer service, but I can also go cook my own food.
[26:33] Travis Draney: Um, this is taking care of people that don't have the means of caring for each other or themselves.
[26:40] Nirav Chheda: So, yeah. Yeah, totally. Let me ask you this, Travis.
[26:44] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. When people hear about no lift NEMT, they're curious and you're sort of explaining to them like what do you think the biggest hesitations are for NEMT businesses um in going through the process of figuring out whether they
[26:58] Nirav Chheda: want to adopt no lift NEMT?
[27:01] Travis Draney: Yeah, it's a new concept. It's a new idea.
[27:03] Travis Draney: It's kind of this paradigm shift where um you you've got to get behind it and understand it.
[27:09] Travis Draney: Um reimbursement is a big question I have.
[27:13] Travis Draney: how do you what do you bill for uh this type of device or this type of service?
[27:18] Travis Draney: So that's something I work with providers to do.
[27:21] Travis Draney: Um bigger operations that are operating gurneys, you know, how do they implement something like that?
[27:29] Travis Draney: Um those are some big questions I have.
[27:32] Travis Draney: Um you know, we're we're as of right now, insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, other than through a broker, they don't really pay for transport.
[27:42] Travis Draney: they there's uh uh adv advantage plans HMO PO plans that usually take on that responsibility.
[27:51] Travis Draney: So those can also be some obstacles.
[27:54] Travis Draney: All of those obstacles I try to help them overcome.
[27:57] Travis Draney: Um uh we also now have some financing options that uh that we've come across too.
[28:03] Travis Draney: That's another obstacle is financing the equipment to implement it to see that return on investment.
[28:08] Travis Draney: Um so we've got some of those solutions now also.
[28:13] Nirav Chheda: So sort of maybe a obvious answer to this question, but do you see a world in which no lift NEMT becomes the primary way to handle wheelchair and gurney patients across the country?
[28:26] Travis Draney: I can I can see how it could become that way.
[28:29] Travis Draney: Um I would love it. I Right now WC19 is a standard.
[28:34] Travis Draney: It's not a law. It it really needs to become a law.
[28:38] Travis Draney: But there's, you know, when a patient has their own wheelchair and that's what they prefer to be transported in, there's some ADA guidelines that we need to overcome that prevent us from putting them into a safer chair.
[28:54] Travis Draney: Um, I definitely think if you're a transport provider and you have a foldable standard wheelchair sitting in the back of your vehicle and that is your go-to device when you get a wheelchair patient, the patient's not in a
[29:07] Travis Draney: wheelchair, you know, I would think twice about that.
[29:11] Travis Draney: That's not that's not the safest equipment.
[29:14] Travis Draney: Some of these chairs, they call them um transport chairs.
[29:18] Travis Draney: They're maroon blue. If you look at those chairs, they will say on them, "Not intended to be transported in a vehicle." Um, so that's something I would take a serious think about.
[29:31] Travis Draney: Um, it's hard to purchase a piece of equipment like this if you're just implemented to do wheelchair transports.
[29:39] Travis Draney: One of the biggest values is that this allows you to do gurney transports as well.
[29:44] Travis Draney: So, it's a really all-in-one piece of equipment.
[29:48] Travis Draney: Um, so I would love it.
[29:50] Travis Draney: I I think it could get there.
[29:52] Travis Draney: There's just some obstacles we have to overcome.
[29:55] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. And like you mentioned, you know, NEMTAC, the industry association is playing a big role in making those standards and breaking down those obstacles.
[30:06] Nirav Chheda: Um, and you've been a member an advisory committee uh member of NEMTAC for a while now.
[30:13] Nirav Chheda: Yeah, since it started, you know, power to you.
[30:17] Travis Draney: Thanks. It's been fun. It's been It's been again, this is the industry it's hard to get out of.
[30:22] Travis Draney: There's there's a shared passion um that's here and you see it.
[30:27] Travis Draney: You can always tell those that are in this industry to make a difference and those that are in the industry just to make a buck and uh you know, making a difference.
[30:35] Travis Draney: It's um it needs it. We need those types of people in this industry that are here to make a Yeah, absolutely.
[30:45] Travis Draney: Travis, thank you so What's the story behind Bambi?
[30:48] Nirav Chheda: What what made it come what make come up with Yeah, so my co-founder Charles um his mom thought it could stand for better ambulance intelligence.
[31:00] Nirav Chheda: We didn't think people would make that connection.
[31:02] Nirav Chheda: Um but we just like that it was a short and cute name uh that people would remember.
[31:08] Nirav Chheda: So, we just went with it.
[31:09] Travis Draney: I'm a big hunter. I like to hunt and I love this Bambi concept and idea.
[31:14] Travis Draney: But absolutely run Bambi run. [laughter]
